1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is that of structures with deployable bodies, and to be more precise sequencing devices controlling at least in part the deployment of mobile bodies of such structures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the aerospace field, for example, certain structures are deployed when the craft (or platform) on which they are installed have reached their operating location (as in the case of a sensing or telecommunication satellite), or have effected a certain portion of their track or mission (as in the case of a spacecraft). This deployment, for example of solar panels of a solar generator and/or send and/or receive panels of a telecommunication antenna and/or panels of a heat transfer device, is effected in accordance with a predefined order and controlled by a sequencing device.
Some prior art sequencing devices allow the displacement of a body of a structure only once another body of the same structure, to which it is attached, has been deployed. To be more precise, each articulation attached to a first body to be deployed which is itself attached to a second body to be deployed is coupled to a sequencing device that authorizes the deployment of the second body only once it is in a locked or virtually locked position.
Thus this kind of sequencing device is not able to initiate the deployment of a body if the deployment of the body to which it is attached has not been completed, because it necessitates a locked state of the body that is being deployed and an element for indicating that locked state.
Thus an object of the invention is to improve on this situation and in particular to enable kinematic releases in intermediate deployment steps, with deployment devices (articulations) that have no locking state indication, and at the end of deployment.